and movie dynamics. I could use exactty thesame sentence here, albeit stepped up severalnotches into today's HD and high-resotutionworld. This new pairing makes Gladiafor onB[u-ray sound fresh and aIive, with sparktingspeciaI effects and realisticaIty metattic-sounding sword clashes. The grunts, groansand btood are more vivid and defined thanever and the way these machines eke outmicroscopic sonic detai[s is second to none.lf anything I found mysetf wanting just a titttemore guts and gusto, a smidgeon more bassexcess and maybe the occasionaI outrageousLFE to throw me off the sofa. The sonicpresentation is potished to a royat standardand rich with detait but, some nights, ljustwant a bit of rough.

This detaited and articutate presentationis absolutety perfect for SACD ptayback,doubty-so given the typicat SACD fare ofctassical and diddty-diddty music. yet theDenon excels with remastered rock ctassics,too. Pink Ftoyd's Wish You Were Here shines

tike, we[t, a crazy diamond, coming across withtangib[e high-fidetity pedigree. As they mightsay over on one of our sister hi-fi magazines,the top-end has admirable extension andartjcutation without succumbing to fatiguingsibilance of brightness. The batance is a bit onthe cool side of neutrat at the bottom-end but,in a comptetety non-hi-fi way, I found giving thesubwoofer a coupte of extra dB on the tevetsetting made the system rock.

I woutd suggest this is Denon's most refinedAVR,/ptayer duo to date and that certainlyshows through in the HD picture performance,too. The smooth yet fairly stow disc-toadingmechanism ctoses to reveal a picture ofoutstanding c[arity, sharpness and detait.Difficutt fu[[-picture diagonaI pans are handtedeasily, equat in performance to any ptayersporting the current crop of Qdeo processors.The DBT-3313UD may tack a few featurescompared to the competition, but it's ahigh-end performer - and don't forget aboutDenon Link HD... I

REVIEWS

AVR-33t3yes

YesNo

No - strangely

yes. Three-zone ir.trdiTrX 116;#3 x composite: 4 x digitat audio (2 x

optical and2xcoaxial)7-in,2-out (of 3 output sockets), vl,4

Yes - 4K2-in, l-out

435(w) x 382(d) 168(h)mm

Spotif y inregration; nnl2jfiHDMI outputs; Denon Link HDlstandby HDMI

passthrough; Appte 0S and Android lontrotapps; Audyssey MultEQ XT RoomEQ; DLNA

media ptayback; Ethernet: USBaAirptay

DBT-33I3UDYesyes

No. Region B Blu-ray/R2 DVD2 x v1.4 outputs

No

t'ro - apart trom oe#8Link HD

yes

NoYes - both

No- transport onty

yes

434(w) x 108(h) x 295(d)mm

Netftix and youTube integra6ilJnlpfflA 1!1eqm!ng; USB fite ptavback; MP3, wMA,AAC, WAV, FLAC, JPEG, MPEGI, -2, -4, WMV andDivX support; fanless construction; fast-toading

SVH mechanism; Pure Direct mode; 0.3Wstandby power consumption

Denon AVR-3313/DBT-33I3UD+ fl,.l00/[900 Approx -.r www.denon.co.uk

+ Tet: 02890 279830HIGHS: Lush buitd quatity; crisp and refined

muttlchannel performance; superb Denon Link_ _ HD sound; great Blu-ray performance

LOWS: No anatogue inputs on AVR: BD otaver[acks some of the features of simltarlv-briied

rivals; GUls not best-of-breed

Perf'ormtanee * *' .*:l*]i)nrsian 7k- f, ;f ll

Feratures fr'fikllfivs'"r'IiE-q--il-f

JANUARY 2O']3 HOME CINEMA CHOICE